Grand Spiral Galaxy NGC
7424
From NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the
Day
The grand,
winding arms are almost mesmerizing in this face-on view of NGC 7424, a spiral galaxy with a prominent central
bar.
About 40 million
light-years distant in the headlong constellation Grus, this island
universe is also about 100,000 light-years across making it remarkably similar
to our ownMilky Way.
Following along the
winding arms, many bright clusters of massive young stars can be found.
The star clusters themselves are several hundred light-years in diameter. And
while massive stars are born in the arms of NGC 7424, they also die there.
Notably, this galaxy was
home to a powerful stellar
explosion, supernova SN 2001ig, which faded well before the above image was recorded.
